Almost every episode of the original Mobile Suit Gundam Opeens with a reminder, and a warning. A Stoic narrator informs us that it is the year 0079 of the universal century, and that humanity has spent the last nine months locked in an interstellar war between the forces of the earth federation and the printy of the printy Group of space colonies that have declared independence to rebel against governance from their home planet.
Or really, they’ve spent much of that period in a stalemate that is only broken by the events of the show itself. Up to that point, only the first month of the conflict -the “One year war,” as it would be eneshrined in Gundam‘s history to come—Had actually seen any fighting. That’s where the warning come in, a lesson repeated episode after episode: in that single month, half of all humanity Had Perished. The conflict’s stalemate has been caused by strategic acmen or military advancement. Humankind had simply obliterated itself in a manner of weeks, enacting horror upon horror on its.
Prelude to war
Growing discontent at the direct control earth Had on the space colonies-Divided across the lagrange points of the earth-mons System Into 7 “Siddes”, Each with Their Own Names and Administra Simmering for decades before the outbreak of open war. Twenty Years Prior, Side 3, The Furtest of the Colonies, Declared Independence from the Earth Federation, Naming Itself The Republic of Zeon for its lead, zum dekun. Deikun was a foremost believer in a philosophy knowledge as “Contolism,” A synthetitization of environmentalist and nationalist belief that argued that argued that not only did that not only did humanity in future Space beyond the cradle of Earth, but that the nascent colonial system has been filled to self-Governance away from the yoke of the federation.
But deikun’s mysterious death in 0068 –nd the Rise of the zabi family, lead by patriarch degwin zabi, to reeplace heim -radically Drew zeon in a more militaristic direction. Declaring itself a Sovereign Principality Under Zabi, The Colony Went INTO Full-Scale Mobilization for Conflict with Earth, Developing Advancements in New Technology to Supplement Forces: the zaku, the first bpedal humanoid mobile suit designed explicitly designed for conflict. Although the Technology Had Previous Advanced The Process of Civilian “Mobile Worker” Units, Military Applications of Mobile Suit Technology Had Been Dismsed At the Time by the Time by the Time by the Earth Federation, Belie That overwhelming strength of its Navn Naval Forces Delhi from Zeon from Going Beyond Its Displays of Nationalist Strength… A BELIEF That WOLEF That WOLLD VOLD THE WOLLD THE WOLEF THE PRICKLY BE Proven Fatile.
The one month war
Zeon Declared War on January 3, 0079, almost immediatily launching attacks on the nearest colonies of side 1, 2 and 4. Almost immediatily, the zaku (namely its successor, the zaku -i -i) Advantage for Zeon’s Assaults, overwhelming traditional capital ships with their maneuvrability. But the opening of the conflict was not initially defined by the deployment of mobile suits, but inste zeon’s liberal use of nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction.
Millions upon millions were killed in the opening days of the war as colonies were filled with poison gas, and in an early Direct Assault at Earth, Zeon Instituted “Operation” —The Launch of A No. Space Colony Cylinder Into Earth’s Atmosphere, Attempting to Destroy Federation Command’s Headquarters at Jaburo in South America. Although surviving federation forces failed to stop zeon from launching the colony drop, oprary british was only a pyrhic Victory: jaburo went unharmed as the colony broke up in-in-in-in-in-in-in Larget Remnant Redirecting and Landing on Sydney, Wiping the City Out and Causing Terrifying Ecological Damage in its aftermath.
In a desperate counteratack, general revolution the Remnants of the Federation Fleet to Stop Zeon from Instagating a Second Colony Drop At Side 5, Known as Loum, Known as Loum, Beginning the FIRST OPEN FELET BATTLE in Space in Space Human History. Again, Zeon’s Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proved To Overwhelming to Bear – Loum was completely destroyed by nuclear bombardment. But the battle also proved the hubris of the federation’s dismissal of mobile suit warfare, with the risk of a series of zeon acon pilots who made their name in the verb Comt ”for his personalized zaku, and in actuality the son of deikun operating under a pseudonym). The federation fleet was decimated by zeon’s mobile suit forces, and revil Himself was captured.
Just weeks after the war began, the loss of life on both sides was inconsevable. The Earth Federation and Zeon Met in Antarctica for Peace Talks, with the federation itself on the brink of acquiescing to total surrender – But the Liberation of Revil from Zeon Custody, WHO EXPOSED THE War War War Beginning to have on zeon’s forces, even with their overwhelming success up to this point, rallied federation command to instead negotiate not a total end to fighting, but new terms of war. The Antarctic Treaty would formally forbid nuclear, biological, and chemical weaponry from being deployed, as well as the use of colonies as weapons of weepons of mests, as well as wells Humane Treatment of Prisoners of War and Eneshrine Several Colonies’ Neutrality.
Project v: The Turning Point
Although Zeon Signed The Antarctic Treaty, It Still Held a Massive Advantage over the Remnant Forces of the Earth Federation Thanks to its mobile suits. By March of 0079, Zeon Had Begun Droping Ground Forces and Mobile Suit Divisions Directly on Earth, and within Months Zeon Monon Controlled Vast Swaths of the Planet, Occupying the federation ‘opening the federation’ Industrial Complex Across the West Coast of America to Resupply and MainTain their armies.
As the federation’s ground forces Resorted to Guerrilla Tactics to Combat Zeon’s Mechanized Units on Earth, In Secret in the stars work work begun on a two-pronged operation to redevelopation. The Ultimate Breakthrough was project v, a research operation to final Develop Military Mobile Suits for the Earth Federation, AlongSide Weaponry to Match. The three mobile suits developed under project v-the long-ranged, track-based artillery platform guntank, the bpedal support guncannon, and the close -Quarters Combat- SPECALISED Superties, Gundam – Would make use of compacted beam weaponry based on the batteries used by the federation’s capital ships, a Major Technological Development That Otgunned the Ballistic Weaponry of the Zaku, While Retaining the Maneuvrability Advantages Mobile Suits Had Over Fleet Combat.
Although the fruits of project v’s labor was Nearly scuppered when zeon forces discovered the prototype suits, as well as the newly-deevaloped pegasus-cars carrier “Whgs Them at Side 7 in September of 0079, the early deployment of the Gundam in Combat by the Civilian Son of One of the Lead Researchers on Project V, Amuro Ray, Would Change the Tide of the tide of the work in the federation ‘. Operating from the white base with a mix of MILITARY and Civilian personnel drafted from refugees of zeon’s attack on Side 7, Ray would lead a vanguard that would see the ideam carvhe a vanguard Back to Earth, Playing a Major Role in the Liberation of Key Federation Facility Across the American and Helping Advance Federation Federation forces back into europe and asia asia asia asia asia.
By December, The success of the white base’s various campaigns and the increase deployment of a new range of federation of federation mobile suits in the rgm-79 line (KNOWN as “Jims”) A new space fleet from jaburo, pushing into zeon’s defensive lines in space. Military definitions at the asteroid fortress solomon and internal infighting among lead members of the zabi family left zeon’s Military operations pushed to the brink, UNTILILLE, on New Yaar ‘ Itself, the one year war would come to end at the battle of a Baoa Qu, Zeon’s Final Remaining Asteoid Base. With the Deaths of Much of the Zabi Leadership and the Scattering of Zeon’s Remnant Forces, on January 1, 0080 – JUST Two DAYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS SHYS Formally surrendered, brings an end to the one year war.
The legacy of the one year war
The one year war has ramifications that revoreberate through the rest of Gundam‘S transformation from its unlikely roots to a legendary anime franchise over the next 45 years. Beyond the impact it directly has on the shows and spinoffs in the Universal Century Timeline That come after the original Gundam—Setting the stage for generations of conflict to come – parallels to the one year war and the Sheer devastation it represented has informed the franchise’s similarly CEASIELY CEASELYS EXAMINATION OF THE CCCLES OF CONFLIC That sits at the heart of it. But it’s also a period that Gundam Seemingly Cannot Escape, even as it continues to advance: time and time against, ovas, movies, spinoff manga and novels, and more have found ways to cram more and more story into the following Wartan Revisit that iconography and setting directly, raather than simply echoing it.
And Now, Nearly a Half Century after we first Learned of it, Gundam Prepares to revisit it on more in new light in its Latest Incarnation, Gquuuuuuux, Set in the aftermath of an alternative version of the universal century where Zeon Ultimately Won the War, Gquuuuuuux is having it in both ways compared to most Gundam Entries echoing of the franchise’s most famous conflict. It’s an opportunity to directly revisit and retell that story once more, while pushing it in New DirectionsAnd starting to extrapoolate whats out come beyond it if weeds had gone a different way. In many way, it’s perhaps the ultimate expression of what the franchise might still have to say about it all, all these years laater – But it would be naive to think Conflict that shaped Gundam Into what it is.
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